The SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) might be a sorry mess financially, but this organisation is sitting on a potential treasure trove.
It’ll take a bunch of cash Sascoc doesn’t have to unlock, but if the government and Lotto can be persuaded to approve the investment, it’ll be Sascoc’s most valuable asset.
I’m not talking about the athletes. Sure, they are the most important commodity because, without them, there is no sport.
But athletes are transient. Not a single South African has won medals at more than two consecutive Olympics.
At some point that record will change. Chad le Clos will be 29 when he bids to make a podium at his third straight Games in Tokyo in 2021. And if Wayde van Niekerk is going to do it, he’ll have to medal next year and again at Paris 2024, when he’s 32.
Sascoc’s single-most valuable asset right now are the coaches behind the athletes. They sit at the epicentre of a factory belt of international excellence or a sports ecosystem also featuring doctors, scientists and other experts.
There was a time, in the first years after readmission, when we believed swimmers in particular had to train overseas if they wanted to get to the top. Penny Heyns, the double gold-medallist from Atlanta 1996, was a case in point.
But things have changed. The last time SA won medals with US-trained athletes was at Athens 2004, courtesy of swimmer Roland Schoeman and his Arizona-based teammates Ryk Neethling and Lyndon Ferns.
Beijing 2008 was a disaster, with only a single medal, but at London 2012 and Rio 2016, South African coaches came of age.
Graham Hill has coached two swimmers to five Olympic medals, Roger Barrow has masterminded two rowing gongs, and Tannie Ans Botha has taken Van Niekerk to one Olympic gold and two world titles.
Rugby sevens coach Neil Powell has guided the Blitzboks to glory a few times and Terseus Liebenberg was the brain behind Sunette Viljoen’s javelin Olympic silver and two world championship medals.
Michael Seme nurtured Caster Semenya’s first international successes and Ian Harries, who coached Mbulaeni Mulaudzi to the Olympic 800m silver in 2004, also helped inspire sports scientist Ross Tucker. Harries may be of retirement age, but he’s still capable, having sunk his immense knowledge into his recent book, Running from the Heart.
Beyond the realm of the Olympics there are other coaches with international success, such as Rassie Erasmus and Pitso Mosimane.
So imagine if Sascoc were to create a council of coaches and task them with drawing up a master plan for the Olympics.
SA has never won more than 10 medals at a single Olympics, so beating that could be the bottom-line target.
The administrators could set the basic targets, such as 15 medals by Los Angeles 2028 and 20 by 2032, and tell the coaches how much money there is to play with.
But it would be up to the latter to devise the nitty-gritty of the plan, picking the codes and how much each should receive.
The coaches are infinitely more qualified to make such decisions than the administrators who work for Sascoc or the elected officials voted on the board.
Right now, however, Sascoc is not receiving any money to perform its high-performance mandate. This year, not a single cent has been given to SA’s Olympic and Paralympic medal hopefuls for Tokyo.
And if that becomes the norm, there will be little need for this expertise and it will shrink.
Once it is lost, it’ll take decades to grow it again. It took more than 20 years to get to this point.
The decisions taken by Sascoc’s newly appointed board — and about Sascoc by government and Lotto — in the next few months are going to determine whether we harness our potential or throw it away for at least a full generation.
